On Saturday, in the final of the 2004 Summer Olympics tennis competition in Athens, top-seeded # 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium won the Olympic gold medal by defeating 2nd-seeded # 2 Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-3, 6-3 (the ladies are shown on the podium during the awards ceremony).
Justine's serve was not broken throughout the match; she played aggressively, varying her attack, occasionally serve-and-volleying. Justine broke Amelie in the 3rd game of the 1st set (not the 1st game, as current AP reports say) and again when leading 5-3 to take the set.
After Justine held to open the 2nd set, Amelie served for the longest game of the match, a game that reached deuce 6 times while Amelie held the advantage only once. Justine broke her to go ahead 2-0, and although the play was not lopsided, Justine was clearly on her way to victory. Serving for the match at 5-3, Justine even had the luxury of winning the gold medal with an overhead smash match point.Justine said: "I don't know how I'm going to celebrate but I certainly will... This is just amazing and at last I'm well and getting better the more I play." storyAmelie said: "[Justine] started very, very strongly. She didn’t give me a chance to play my game." story

Earlier on Saturday, in the 3rd place match, unseeded # 24 Alicia Molik of Australia defeated 3rd-seeded # 3 Anastasia Myskina of Moscow, Russia 6-3, 6-4 to win the bronze medal.
Anastasia had been very upset about losing her semifinal on Friday to Justine Henin-Hardenne after holding a 5-1 lead in the 3rd set, so she might not have been all there today. Anastasia should feel too bad about it: nobody else reached a third set against Justine in these Olympic games.Anastasia said: "After a match like yesterday it was really hard to play again. During the night I was thinking about the match. I was really upset. I gave everything I had yesterday. I just wasn't able to recuperate... Emotionally, I was drained. I didn’t have any gas left. I couldn’t find any motivation."

Justine and Amelie are now tied 3-3 in career matches, having alterned wins since the 1st time they played, in 1999.
21-year-old Justine Henin-Hardenne, born in Liege, now lives in Marloie (in the French-speaking part of Belgium). Justine is 19-10 in WTA singles finals, including 3 Grand Slams. Justine obtained her hyphen by marrying Pierre-Yves Hardenne, she wears "The Mark with 3 Stripes" (down their back this year, a fashion gaffe by the sons of Adi Dassler), and swings a Wilson "H Tour" bat. Justine has been coached since she was 14 by Carlos Rodriguez, and has also been coached by Pat Etcheberry. Justine has sat out most of the past 4 months with a "CMV viral infection" that left her feeling weak, but it appears that she is all better now.
24-year-old Amelie Mauresmo was born in Geneva, Switzerland and has a residence in St. Germains en Laye, France. Amelie is 13-13 in WTA singles finals, she won Tier I titles 2 weeks in a row earlier this year in Berlin and Rome, and more recently in Montreal. This is the 6th final Amelie has reached this year. Amelie wields a Dunlop "300G" bat, wears Nike attire and shoes, and is coached by Loic Courteau.

Just a coincidence: 3 of the 4 semifinalists had the initials "AM". If Akiko Morigami had been in Justine's section of the draw...

Athens:
The Olympics promised live scoring, but served up just a results page. In the late rounds, they began providing live scoring by games.
The Olympic Tennis Center has ten courts: centre court (8,000 seats), court 1 (4,000 seats), court 2 (2,000 seats) and courts 3-9 (200 seats). The courts have the same surface as the US Open, and Wilson US Open balls are being used. factsheet, .pdf
The singles draw for Athens had 16 seeds, with NO 1st-round byes. There were 48 direct entries and 16 wild cards in the draw.
The time in Athens is GMT (UCT, ZULU) plus 3 hours (=US EDT+7, PDT +10). Early round play began at 10am local time.

Cincinnati:
In the Cincinnati final on Sunday, top-seeded # 4 Lindsay Davenport of the US defeated 2nd-seeded # 9 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-3, 6-2.
28-year-old Californian Lindsay has now won 44 WTA singles titles in 77 finals (if you include the 1996 Olympic title), including 3 Grand Slam tourneys. She won 3 in a row earlier this summer at Stanford, LA, and San Diego. Before the ascent of the Williams sisters, Tracy Austin was quoted as rating Lindsay's serve as the best in the WTA. Lindsay hits the ball hard and deep, but she is not as mobile as some players. Lindsay wears Nike and hits with a Wilson "H Tour". Lindsay, who was trained in her youth by Robert Lansdorp, has been coached by Adam Peterson since March, 2003. Davenport career record
19-year-old Vera Zvonareva has won 2 titles (Bol in 2003, Memphis in 2004) in 4 WTA singles finals. Vera wears "The Mark with 3 Stripes" and wields a "Fischer Pro Tour FT" bat (about 6 of the WTA top 100 have been using Fischer bats, but the number seems to be going up).

The main draw for Cincinnati had 8 seeds, with 2 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers and 3 wild cards in the main draw, 1 of which (Davenport) was a late entry who would have qualified for direct entry. Qualifying finals were on Monday.
The time in Ohio is UCT (GMT, Zulu, Greenwich...) minus 4 hours. That is Eastern Daylight Time in the US, =PDT +3 hours. Early round play began at 11am local time.

Justine said: "I love playing on hard court, and now I’m feeling good for three or four weeks. I can practice, I can work hard, I can push my limits a little bit more, and I feel finally that this virus is gone, so I can play my tennis." interview

Anastasia said: "...the [weather] condition's pretty tough. It's windy and it's really hot. So I don't want to be in the court longer than--I don't know--40, 45 minutes. The match is pretty good. I'm really happy that it was good end."
About the rib sprain that caused her to withdraw from last week's tourney in Poland, Anastasia said: "...I still have problem but it's not really--I mean, it's affect a little bit my serve... I have a good physio here, so and they treat me well. I hope for the next match I'm gonna be good, ready." interview

*#24 Alicia Molik AUS d #6 s4 Elena Dementieva RUS 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 Mon

Alicia Molik

Alicia said: "I've been in great form. Coming off I think basically perfect preparation, winning in Stockholm. I played Elena just over 12 months ago, and I put myself in a winning position. It was a close match. I lost. But I'm a far better player now than 12 months ago. So I knew how to create opportunities for myself today. It was just a matter of getting hold of the conditions, using them and my weapons and combining them, which I think I did reasonably well today." interview

Ai said: "[Jie] was hitting the ball really deep and then really aggressive whole match. I was kind of back up a little bit. And it's kind of tough to enter the match. But mentally I tried to be there and then try to be aggressive, but it just didn't go well today. But even though she had couple of chance for serving for the match, I just tried to hang in there. Then luckily I got through this match. So hopefully I play better next round...
"[Jie is a] really great player, and she's still young. So she's coming up." interview

#15 s9 Nadia Petrova RUS d #75 Martina Sucha SVK 6-3, 6-3 Mon

Nadia Petrova

#16 s10 Patty Schnyder SUI d #63 Petra Mandula HUN 6-3, 6-4 Sun

Patty said: "I'm not playing 100 per cent yet, but I'm starting to play better... I think that what made the difference in my favour was my serve and the fact that I made the break early in the first set."

Chanda said: "Both of us could have played a little bit better at key times... Speaking for myself, I definitely could have been a little bit better, especially early in the match and toward the end." story

Fabiola said: "Although we are best friends, [Paola] tried to play more aggressively and kept sending the ball on me... She made more mistakes than usual and I took advantage of this. Knowing her well helped me a lot. It was too bad that two Latin American players competed against each other very early in the tournament... I was not affected by the noisy Colombian fans... I want a medal. I feel more confident day by day."

Paola said: "We are both players of the same level but [Fabiola] took advantage of my mistakes. I also had a problem with a fan who was really annoying and that had an effect on my game... I need some rest now so I can be ready for [my] doubles match."

Eleni tore a thigh muscle when she was up 4-2 30-40 in the 2nd set, but played out the match, in substantial pain. Eleni said: "I was in such great pain that I couldn't even walk afterwards. It was so sad when I heard the warning by the referee [to continue playing]. I told him that there was no way I would stop playing...
"It was my honour to compete on the Centre Court with all that wonderful crowd, so I did not want to stop playing. I believe that if I was playing in another country, and not in Greece, I would have probably lost this match. I thank the crowd so much and I promise to do my best tomorrow...
"I have nothing to lose tomorrow. I will fight and give everything to beat Myskina."

Maggie said: "I started very well and I played good tennis in the first set. In the second and third set, I made many mistakes which [Eleni] took advantage of... Seeing her getting injured two and three times I thought I would win easily. It was a big surprise for me that she recovered and played very good during the crucial points."

Alicia said: "I don't think I played quite as well as yesterday... I expected to come out blazing considering, you know, the conditions were so bad yesterday... I think the good thing about today was I was down in the first set. I was breakpoints down. I was game points down. I was set points down. But I think in every instance I won the point and I think she lost the point. So I stepped it up at the right time today, which I think was a good sign about the match." interview

Anastasia said: "...we played before couple matches, and they were in three sets. So I thought this one going to be even tougher because it's Olympic Games... But I'm really happy it was that easy...
"I think I played okay. I didn't say that I play my best. I didn't say that I play really bad. I just play. I did what I can do. That was okay match. That's it. But maybe Francesca was feeling pressure...
"...Francesca tried to mix it up a lot with slice, high ball, you know, and didn't really work because actually I expect that game, and I knew what she's going to do, and I can read the game pretty well. So I play real easy."

Denisa said: "[Yuliana] won a qualifier. She won three matches. Players who qualify are always more dangerous. You have to be careful of them."

*#109 q Shuai Peng CHN d #59 s6 Jill Craybas USA 6-3, 6-3 Tue

Shuai said: "I just think I played my best tennis. My coach said just hit the ball and make [Jill] run. I've been here since Saturday. I got to practice on the stadium court, and I knew it was a little fast."

Ohio native Lilia will play Lindsay Davenport in the 2nd round. Lilia said: "It's an unfortunate draw for me," she said. "I'd like to play her in a later round, but it's very exciting to be playing close to home."

Lindsay said: "I wanted to play well from the start. A couple of aces and a couple of winners is the way you want to start. I never really got into trouble in the first set...
"I know when I'm returning well that it's important to keep the pressure up. Even when I wasn't breaking [Vera], I felt like I was in the return games. I just wanted to keep applying the pressure when she was serving and hit the ball deep and hard." story

Vera said: "It's tough to play against the top players, especially when there's no opportunity to break their serve... When I was serving, I felt like I was in control of some of the games. It was really tough because [Lindsay] was serving so well. I was feeling pressure on my serve, knowing that I had to hold."

(Aug 11) # 11 Serena Williams has withdrawn from the 2004 US Olympic tennis team at the last moment due to persistent left knee pain. 1992 Olympic gold medalist # 7 Jennifer Capriati has also withdrawn, still troubled by a hamstring injury that forced her to withdraw from two earlier tourneys (Jennifer has accepted a wild card to play at the Pilot Pen Open in New Haven, which will give her 11 more days to heal than the Olympics would have). # 40 Lisa Raymond, already on the doubles roster for Athens, was named to replace Jennifer in singles. Other players making the trip to Athens are Venus Williams, Chanda Rubin (singles), plus Martina Navratilova (doubles with Lisa Raymond). The Williams sisters were to play doubles as well; now Chanda Rubin might play doubles with Venus, although that has not yet been decided.
It is unfortunate that Serena and her doctors did not make their decision earlier, because # 24 Amy Frazier (or # 33 Meghann Shaughnessy) probably would have loved the chance to play in the Olympics. Teams were allowed to replace players on their rosters until last Saturday, so new players can no longer be added, and Martina Navratilova does not have the required ranking to replace Serena in singles. Jennifer had less time to contemplate the situation; she was playing earlier this week.

(Aug 4) # 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne has announced on her official website that her health has improved, and she will play in the Olympics games, August 15-22. Justine said: "At this moment, Im feeling better and better. I started training normally one week ago, you can’t imagine how happy that made me... After the Olympics, I am going to the United States to participate in the US Open."
Justine withdrew from Wimbledon (and all her tourneys since then) because she hadn't completely recovered from a viral infection. Justine withdrew from the Family Circle Cup in mid-April, citing exhaustion due to low blood sugar. Doctors later diagnosed the condtion as a "CMV viral infection". Justine was thought to be clear of the virus when she played in the French Open in May, but lost in the 2nd round, still feeling only about 75% healthy.

(Aug 7) The WTA Tour has retracted their threat to not award rankings points for players at the 2004 Olympics to protest the exclusion of two German players. But the WTA says they will not renew their agreement with the Olympics and the ITF for future Games unless changes are made to provide "a 100 per cent guarantee that all eligible WTA Tour players based on rankings will be entered in the Olympic tennis tournament."
The German Olympic Committee has barred the two highest-ranking German WTA players, # 55 Anca Barna and # 72 Marlene Weingartner (current rankings), from playing in the Athens Olympics, because neither has met the German OC's arbitrary criteria of reaching a semi-final of a Grand Slam tourney or the final of a Tier I tourney. Both Anca and Marlene have met the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) qualifying standard, and would receive Olympic invites if the GOC did not bar them. Because of this bizarre idiocy, WTA players considered a boycott of the Olympics. On August 6th in Montreal WTA CEO Larry Scott said: "I met with around 30 players who planned on playing in Athens. They are still very upset with the situation but I made it clear to them that my view is not playing in the tournament would be bad for the game's image and most players seemed persuaded as a result of our meeting." The tennis competition in Athens runs from August 15-22.

(May 29, 2003) The WTA will begin to award ranking points for Olympic play in 2004, to encourage player participation (The ATP has done this since 2000). The gold medalist will recieve 248 points, silver 174, and bronze 122, and other players less. These points are fewer than those earned in a Tier I tourney, but more than a Tier II tourney. Current rankings will be used to determine the top 48 automatic qualifiers in the 64-player draws for men's and women's singles. Each nation can have up to 4 entries into each draw.

The Olympics are the 4th WTA "US Open Series" tourney.What is that thing? The USTA has launched a new promotional framework in 2004 called the US Open Series. The idea is to group together the (mostly) US summer hardcourt tourneys leading up to the US Open. This includes 10 WTA & ATP tourneys in 9 cities over 7 weeks. The USTA says they have created a more orderly TV schedule for these events, including 100 hours of live prime-time (mostly cable) coverage over 6 weeks. US Open Series TV Schedule
Also, players who do well in these particular tourneys will be awarded "US Open Series Points" at each tourney. This year, the men’s and women’s US Open Series winner (the ones with the most points from all events combined) will each given a 50% bonus over the prize money they earn at the US Open, while the 2nd place finishers in the Series receive an additional 25%, and the 3rd place finishers awarded an additional 10%. That might be a lot of money. In 2005 these bonuses will be even larger, 100% for the winners (that means that if they win the Series and the Open both, their prize money for the US Open plus bonus will exceed $2 million), 50% for 2nd, and 25% for 3rd.Opinion: This should work well for the USTA, WTA, and ATP if they explain it well enough to the fans, and if the TV is really good. Unfortunately the TV is still spread over 5 different cable and broadcast networks. And there has been a strong tendency in TV tennis to show boring blowout matches that feature overly hyped big names, while close, exciting matches between unhyped names are ignored. If they keep showing matches that they know in advance from the pairings are likely to wind up 6-1, 6-0, and the announcers do us the favor of reminding us every few minutes of how boring the match that they chose to show is, then no amount of additional promotion is going to help.The down side: The prize money bonuses are strictly a rich get richer deal. This is great for people who are already making millions, but does little or nothing for journeyman players whose annual prize money is in 5 figures instead of 7. Their only advantage is if the scheme really helps increase interest in tennis as a whole, sells more tickets, and raises TV ratings. That might seem iffy to them. If it works, great. To make it work, they have to do the TV really well.On second thought: It is unfortunate that the USTA, ATP, & WTA think they will get the best "hype" value by handing out extra millions to already rich players, while they can't afford to give the poor fans good live scoring and a good photo gallery at every tourney. Improved tourney websites with live scores and lots of good daily photos would be much better ways to sustain fan interest over the pro tennis season, so that people fill the seats when the show comes to town.

The WTA tourneys in the US Open Series are:
Bank of the West Classic, Athens
JP Morgan Chase Open, Athens
Rogers AT&T Canada Cup, Toronto, CAN
Olympic Tennis, Athens GRE
Pilot Pen Open, New Haven